As Art Institutions Race to Expand in China, Beijing’s UCCA Museum Announces Plans to Build a Shanghai Satellite

by admin

Nov 7, 2019

artnet

Shanghai is having a moment.

The UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing announced
yesterday that it will open a new outpost in the Chinese city in
2021. The announcement was made on the heels of the opening of the
splashy new Centre Pompidou x West Bund
Museum Project, which was inaugurated by French president
Emmanuel Macron earlier this week. The digital art collective
teamLab has also just opened a new museum in the
city.

UCCA’s Shanghai branch will live on the second, third, and
fourth floors of a currently being erected in the city’s Jing’an
District. Designed by New York-based firm SO-IL, the building will
include retail and dining sections alongside the exhibition
space.

“I have always been a fan of and, in some ways, a participant in
what is happening in Shanghai, from early collaborations [in the
city] with artists like MadeIn and Yang Fudong and others, so to
finally put down some roots there is really exciting,” UCCA
director and CEO Philip Tinari told The Art
Newspaper.

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Reposted from @ucca798 (@get_regrann) – During UCCA
Gala 2019 on Sunday November 3, UCCA Director Philip Tinari shared
some very special news, proudly announcing a new UCCA art center in
Shanghai, the newest addition to our museum group. The space will
be our third museum, and was announced on the heels of the first
anniversary of our first branch museum, UCCA Dune. ⁣ ⁣ The museum
is slated to open in early 2021, and will showcase significant
voices in Chinese, international, and emerging contemporary art
alongside exhibitions that will explore aspects of urban culture,
design, architecture, and fashion in collaboration with UCCA Lab.
The museum will also include a project space dedicated to the work
of young artists. ⁣ ⁣ The center will be built and operated in
collaboration with UCCA’s newest strategic partner, K. Wah
International Holdings Ltd, and is designed by renowned
architectural firm SO-IL @solidobjectives , with the project
spearheaded by firm co-founder Jing Liu. UCCA’s space will spread
over 5,000 square meters on three levels of an 86-meter tall tower,
which will include a retail space, restaurant, and outdoor terrace.
It will be located in northern Jing’an district, adjacent to Suzhou
Creek and on the intersection of Qufu Road and Xizang Road.⁣ ⁣
Images courtesy K. Wah Group.⁣ – #regrann

A post shared by SO – IL (@solidobjectives) on Nov 5, 2019 at
4:03am PST

Tinari says the move is an “interesting opportunity to start to
think about ourselves as an institution working not on a local
scale, but on a national scale.” Artnet News reached out to Tinari
for comment but did not hear back by press time.

The new museum will focus on Chinese, international, and
emerging contemporary art. It will include a project space to
showcase the work of young artists and will also mount exhibitions
relating to fashion, design, and architecture. A statement from the
museum emphasizes UCCA’s reputation as an institution that offers a
“comprehensive lifestyle experience.”

The space, which will be nearly 54,000 square feet in size, is
being built and operated by the property development group K. Wah
International Holdings Ltd., and will be the third museum founded
by the art collectors Guy and Myriam Ullens. They also founded
Beijing’s 798 Art District (which just closed the first-ever
Picasso retrospective in China) and a satellite space, UCCA Dune,
located inside a sand dune in the seaside enclave of Aranya in
Beidaihe.

The post As Art Institutions Race to Expand in China,
Beijing’s UCCA Museum Announces Plans to Build a Shanghai
Satellite appeared first on artnet News.